Press release

MORE THAN 500 RESIDENTS AND STUDENTS VISIT THE BRACCO PRODUCTION SITE IN CERIANO LAGHETTO

“Open Doors” was a valuable opportunity to show people what happens inside one of the world’s largest contrast agent plants. An industrial facility with approximately 300 employees that exports its products to 80 countries.

Milan, 21 May 2011 – To mark International Chemistry Year, the Bracco Group, the world’s leading player in diagnostic imaging, today opened the doors of its production facility in Ceriano Laghetto in the province of and to the public. The initiative was designed to give people information about the technological processes that today ensure ever greater safety in the workplace and enhance protection of the environment. Visitors to the factory included many public figures, led by Euro MP Lara Comi and the Chairman of the Monza and Brianza Provincial Council, Dario Allevi.

“Everything around us is chemical: from the smallest molecules to the largest transformations, not to mention the countless manufactured goods and products in our daily lives. So “Open Doors” is first and foremost an opportunity to celebrate science,” said Bracco Group Chairman and CEO Diana Bracco during her welcome address. “Thanks to its close connection with scientific research, chemistry is part of practically every industrial sector, enabling us to transform knowledge and discoveries into new products and improve the quality of our lives, safety, health and the environment. My sincere thanks to the Hon. Lara Comi for accepting our invitation. Her presence here underlines the role played by the chemicals industry in and throughout Europe. Despite the rapid growth of the emerging countries, Europe leads the way in chemicals, accounting for approximately one third of world production with a trade surplus of almost 40 billion euro; and within Europe, Italy is the third chemicals producer after Germany and France. Including employment in allied industries, in Italy the chemicals sector has created around 380,000 jobs.”

Established in 1988, the Bracco Imaging factory is one of the world’s main production centres for contrast agents, of fundamental importance in diagnostic medicine. It supplies 80 countries, including the USA, Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Japan and China, and has about 300 employees, all of whom are highly qualified. Its production plants employ state-of-the-art technology and deploy high levels of automation to conduct activities in an advanced niche of specialty chemicals. The Ceriano Laghetto site’s main product is IOPAMIDOL, flanked by two other active ingredients for Magnetic Resonance scanning. Ceriano Laghetto is a highly innovative facility built on a surface area of 470,000 m 2, half of which houses plants and offices; the remaining area is agricultural land.

The Ceriano Laghetto “Open Doors” day began in the morning with a visit by more than 250 students from local technical institutes and high schools, and continued, after the welcome speeches, with guided tours for residents to key areas of the plant: the thermal power plant, the purifier, the control room, the production floors. The tour guides who accompanied the visitors to the heart of the Bracco Imaging facility and illustrated the production processes were the factory workers themselves. The tour was an opportunity to see Bracco’s highly innovative production processes close up and to meet the people who manage those processes on a daily basis.

For more information:

Communication & Image Tel. +39 02 21772699 – fax +39 02 21772770 Mail: [email protected]